By the time of Puglisi's discovery in late 2007, however, the LADWP
had already submitted an application to the Bureau of Land
Management for a right of way following the markers through the Big
Morongo Preserve. A few months later, it petitioned the federal
Department of Energy to include that route in the West-Wide Energy
Corridor (WWEC), a process set forth by Congress in the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 to fold hundreds of energy-transportation
projects into a single environmental review. The way it looked to
Puglisi, the L.A. Department of Water and Power -- the same agency
that 85 years ago built an aqueduct to suck the Owens River Valley
dry -- was setting up for another desert land grab. "Los Angeles,"
Puglisi observes, "doesn't give out very much information."

More to the point, Los Angeles is in a hurry. The city
needs to meet the renewable energy goals imposed by its
green-minded mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, who wants 20 percent of
the city's power to come from renewable sources by 2010, and 35
percent by 2020. And it also has to catch up with the rest of
California. None of the state's other utilities, from the
investor-owned Southern California Edison to the public Sacramento
Municipal Utility District, emit anywhere near the 13 million
metric tons of carbon dioxide that LADWP does every year. And while
the public utility was previously exempt from a state anti-global
warming law, it may soon be subject to a statewide cap-and-trade
system taxing all greenhouse gas emitters, public and private.

So the LADWP, which currently derives only eight percent
of its energy from renewable sources -- up from three percent in
2006 -- has had to scramble to find green power. And the Mojave has
long been a natural place to look.

"The wasteland of the
desert is the goldmine of our future energy needs," writes the
octogenarian energy expert S. David Freeman in his book,
Winning Our Energy Independence. Freeman, who
helped guide energy policy under both the Nixon and Carter
administrations, ran the L.A. Department of Water and Power from
1997 to 2001. He wears cowboy hats and speaks in a Tennessean's
exaggerated drawl, and retains an environmental hero's glow in
Southern California, where he's now busily greening the city's
soot-choked port.

The 55-year-old Nahai, by contrast, ran
his own private real estate law firm before coming to the utility.
He wears elegantly cut suits and delivers his words in a refined,
British-inflected English. But in all the important ways, he is
Freeman's philosophical heir: Next to the challenge of weaning his
city off coal, all other concerns pale.

"The effects on
the environment and the repercussions (of transmission) -- we
agonize over it all the time," Nahai says. "But I remain convinced
that those Salton Sea resources are the only fuel to replace coal.
And it is in the best interest of the state and all of its citizens
that we access them."

A year ago, Nahai described this as
acting on behalf of the "greater good." The wording was
unfortunate, echoing as it did the same utilitarian principle --
the greatest good for the greatest number -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
used to justify the Owens Valley water deal. Desert residents
seized on it. "Whose 'greater good' are we talking about?" gripes
April Sall, who manages two preserves in the Mojave for The
Wildlands Conservancy. "What about the greater good of future
generations who won't have this land to enjoy?"

More from Energy & Industry

Excellent article. The Sunrise Powerlink
really is a sham geared to bring power from polluting power plants
in Mexicali northward. While it's being advertised as
providing power for San Diego, the ultimate goal is to go all the
way to the Los Angeles market. Fortunately, there's a great
alternative plan for San Diego that reduces the metro
area's energy-related carbon footprint by 50%, without
destructive transmission lines. It's called San Diego Smart
Energy 2020 (www.sdsmartenergy.org),
and it could be used as a blueprint for other cities with plenty of
sun.

As for Green Path North, it just seems
obvious it should go right along Interstate 10. Hesperia is far out
of the way of any route from Imperial Valley to Los
Angeles.

dakuaaina

Jun 14, 2008 11:42 PM

Thanks for the lengthy article on the Green
project to bring in geothermal to the LA power grid. You mentioned
the 'other' project briefly, the Powerlink in San
Diego (David Hogan was quoted), but this project has a lot of grass
roots opposition, and the CPUC will issue a final ruling later this
summer/early fall. The cost benefit analysis keeps being revised
lower, and lower, and the power source for these massive
transmission lines Sempra Energy (San Diego Gas &
Electric) wants to string through Anza Borrego Desert State Park
(can you believe that?!) and scenic, tourism-dependent rural San
Diego County "Backcountry" towns is purported to
included dirty coal plants in Mexicali, Baja California. See the
feature article in the San Diego Reader on the Powerlink about two
weeks ago. HCN, it'd be great if you'd task a
reporter to cover the Powerlink issue, especially as the CPUC gets
ready for its ruling.

Thanks,

Concerned San
Diego residents

Anonymous

Jun 18, 2008 11:31 AM

What a great article on the
Green path projects. I would like to express my thanks to April
Sall, Donna Thomas and the C.D.C and everyone who has supported the
fight to save our (everyone not just desert residents) desert.
Because this land is to be for all of us, for the visitors that
haven't seen this desert beauty, for generation to come, it
needs to be here for all to see! For if we really care about this
earth then we will find a way to live on this plant without the
destruction of it. I believe that our decision makers (althought
they would never admit to it) are all about, $$$$, power
and greed. People we are in a self-destruction
mode! If every one of us doesn't make a
change,(REALLL Soon!) a change to love one another and
this plant that we call home. Then we all can just kiss this big
green and blue plant Good-Bye, forever! So here is my 2
cents to all the higher-ups who make the decisions for the people
of earth. Do the right thing for the people, the earth, your
families, forget about if you'll be elected next year or if
this group or that group donated a bunch of $ to your
cause, forget about the $$$$ because what good is that $ going to
do you when there is no more you?...............................and
me!!!!!!!!!!
From: S.O.D sign designer, supporter of the Stop Green Path North
project and proud onwer of a piece of this earth, Laura
Harris/Robert Salyers

powerlink

reid walters

Sep 23, 2008 05:56 AM

I will now resubscribe to the HCN. Anza-borrego and the powerlink, to me, are the most pressing issues in the desert Southwest. This desert must be preserved.
Reid Walters